Nelly Furtado Is Making Me Sad

It’s disappointing when an artist you respect releases a song that’s far below your standards for them, and in some cases is probably far below their own standards for themselves. It’s even sadder when the entire country embraces that song like it’s something special. Currently falling into the category of “your music used to mean something but now it’s disposable so American music fans love you” is Nelly Furtado. When “Promiscuous” first hit it annoyed me because I know she’s capable of far better, and now that it has propelled her latest album, Loose, to number one the Billboard charts a depressing trend continues; dumbing down your music, selling out, and being a whore will make you famous.

As soon as “Promiscuous” debuted on radio I was disappointed with the turn Ms. Furtado’s career was taking. The song has a bangin Timbaland beat (he only makes bangers), but the lyrics are nothing short of awful. Yeah, two people flirting with each other, each looking for a one night stand, not exactly ground breaking material. Before she went and got promiscuous, however, she had something to say. Her first single ever, “I’m Like A Bird,” included the lyric “I don’t know where my soul is, I don’t know where my home is,” and then she hit everyone with some more food for thought with her second album Folklore.

Folklore’s lead single, and please remember this was the album right before Loose, was “Powerless,” a song about Furtado and her culture. Let’s take a look at some sample lyrics from “Powerless.”

Paint my face in your magazines
Make it look whiter than it seems
Paint me over with your dreams
Shove away my ethnicity

Cuz this life is too short to live it just for you
But when you feel so powerless, what are you gonna do
And compare them with her current hit single “Promiscuous.”

Promiscuous boy
You already know
That I’m all yours
What you waiting for?

Roses are red
Some diamonds are blue
Chivalry is dead
But you're still kinda cute
Is it any wonder that I’m disappointed in the music buying public? The second set of lyrics is a monster hit while the first set didn’t sell at all. Are we really that dumb, or are we simply that disinclined to use our brains? I understand not everyone wants to be bombarded with thought all the time, but we used to want something more out of our music than simply a dance-able tune we could dispose of in a few months. This is indicative of our culture right now, though, here today gone tomorrow. In 2006 the concept of substance and lasting power is one that isn’t necessarily foreign, but is simply uncared for. Nobody cares if what they’re listening to, what they’re watching or what they’re doing, has an substance to it.

Nelly Furtado is an unfortunate scapegoat in this discussion, but a worthy one none the less. Her last two lead singles illustrate everything that’s wrong with the listening public today. Substance over a funky beat, or fluff over club banger? People have made their choice and now I’m afraid a potentially great artist will have her creativity stifled by it. Eventually she’ll say to herself, “why should I try to make deep songs that matter when all I have to do is act like a whore and sell 200,000 copies in my first week?” Because your deep stuff matters, that’s why! I hope you know that Ms. Furtado and I hope somewhere you have a notebook full of dope songs just waiting to be sung that are more like your previous efforts because “Promiscuous” ranks as a powerless tune while “Powerless” was something relevant.